


Unhappy Sisters Make For Lousy Family Members

by random_chick



Category: G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 01:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_chick/pseuds/random_chick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's not that you couldn't tell me, it's that you didn't."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unhappy Sisters Make For Lousy Family Members

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/gifts).



Anastasia Lewis de Cobray McCullen was a prickly woman, if one were being polite about it.

If one weren’t being polite then the phrase “stone cold bitch” might come to mind.

She didn’t take well to interruptions, or to being woken up, or to… well, anything that didn’t serve her interests or her husband’s interests, though those were quite often one and the same. She made no apologies for this fact -- it was just how she was, and only two people ever had any hope of calming her down.

Ana rested a hand on her stomach smiling fondly as she ran a hand over the slightest of baby bumps. It’d just come out in the news that she was pregnant with the heir to M.A.R.S. Industries. She’d teased her husband, saying what if the baby were a girl? James had just responded that it didn’t matter, that she would succeed him anyway.

Her cell phone rang, jogging her out of her reverie; she glanced at it and groaned. “Oh, damn it,” she muttered under her breath, even as she answered it. “Hello, Shana.”

“You didn’t call me.” Scarlett’s voice sounded distinctly wounded.

“There wasn’t time.”

“The papers say you’re four months pregnant,” Scarlett retorted. “Which means you’ve probably known for at least two. You could have picked up the phone, Ana.”

“It’s complicated,” Ana said with a heavy sigh, leaning against the kitchen counter. “James has enemies. Enemies who would have been more than happy to know that his pretty new wife was carrying his child.”

“Do I need to be worried?” Scarlett asked, crankiness momentarily gone in the face of potential harm to her only remaining sibling. “Are you safe?”

“We are now,” was all Ana said.

Scarlett thought about those words for a moment, decided she didn’t really want to know because the less she knew, the less she could be called on to testify to in a court of law.

“You could have told me after, then,” Scarlett said, again sounding wounded and irritated.

“It happened so quickly, Shana,” Ana said, irritated herself now. “James and I are in the press quite a bit between his work and my society goings-on and my own work with the company and everything else. I’m surprised the papers didn’t freakin’ know before we did.”

Scarlett frowned. “It just hit the news yesterday,” she said. “And your enemies are apparently for the moment no longer a problem. So there was time between that and yesterday.”

“Not much,” Ana said with the air of someone repeating something they’d said a thousand times before. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, Shana, I really am.”

“It’s not that you couldn’t tell me,” Scarlett said. “It’s that you didn’t.” But then she sighed heavily. “Would you have, if you could have?”

And now it was Ana’s turn to sound small and hurt. “Of course I would have, Shan. You’re my best friend and my sister. You’re the one I tell everything to. If I can.”

Scarlett sighed at that. “Yeah, I know.” She took a breath. “I’m sorry, Ana,” she said softly. “It just… threw me, is all.”

“I understand,” Ana said, running her hand through her hair now. “It would throw me too if I had to find out something so important about you through the news.”

“Unless it’s a promotion, you’d likely never find out that way.” But Scarlett was teasing now, the anger and crankiness and all the other negativity gone for the moment.

“Oh, you and your super secret organization nonsense,” Ana said, scoffing. “Please.”

There was silence for a moment, companionable but with an edge. It held the promise of things gone wrong between the siblings once more, a promise they never intended to keep.

“I should probably go,” Scarlett said finally. “We’re pretty busy; training and all that. I just… wanted to congratulate you.”

“Thank you,” Ana said with a smile. “I know you aren’t fond of James, so… thank you.”

“I may not be fond of him, but you are,” Scarlett pointed out. “And as long as he doesn’t hurt you, I can live with it.”

It wasn’t optimal, but it would have to do.


End file.
